Harlem. Ah, Harlem, usually a place I pass on the way into Grand Central. I always want to visit, but it the part of the city I know the least. For the Harlem portion of my island vacation, I had to sort of chart a course, where my traveling companion and I would see the most of the area. Even though, we didn’t get to see what turned out to be the best part, but we got to see a lot of it.

OK, not a typical Harlem view, but here we are:

There were some lovely photos of the lovelier Reverend Al Sharpton dancing gracefully after it was announced the King of Pop had passed:

Speaking of him:

Harlem is also a place of vintage beauty:

And a beauty that can be lyrical as well:

Of course the family was none too happy with me taking their photo, but I felt like I had to, like most of the time in these situations. Everyone was sitting so perfectly I had to do it.

Moving right along, wouldn’t be Harlem without at least one or two of these:

Fun stores:

And this is where we say goodbye: